A small group of researchers with the U.S. Weather Bureau's National Severe Storms Project (NSSP) moves from Kansas City to the Weather Radar Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, and begins work with a recently installed research Weather Surveillance Radar-1957 (WSR-57).

1964

The entire National Severe Storms Project operation moves to Norman and is reorganized as the National Severe Storms Laboratory with Edwin Kessler as the new director.

In 1956, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory built a 3 cm continuous wave Doppler radar that used one antenna to transmit and another to receive. This radar was designed to detect very high wind speeds in tornadoes, but could not determine the distance to the tornadoes. In 1964, NSSL engineers modifed this radar to transmit in pulses. The pulsed Doppler radar could receive data in between each transmit pulse, eliminating the need for two antennas and solving the distance problem.

1965

Aircraft flew into thunderstorms to measure turbulence during Project Rough Rider in the 1960s, '70s and early '80s. This data was combined with measurements of the intensity of the rain from the WSR-57 to understand how thunderstorm echoes and turbulence are related. This research led to improved commercial airline safety guidelines in the vicinity of thunderstorms that are still in use today.

1967

Researchers place two Doppler radars so that each has a different view of the same storm. It is the first dual-Doppler experiment in the United States.

1969

NSSL obtains a surplus 10 cm Doppler radar that had been used by the U.S. Air Force.

1971

The experimental NSSL Doppler radar becomes operational.

1973

NSSL engineers create a contoured black and white display, a vast improvement from the grid of numbers currently in use.

On May 24, an NSSL team intercepts a storm being scanned by the NSSL Doppler radar. The team documents the entire life cycle of the tornado on film. Researchers are able to compare the film images with Doppler radar data and discover a pattern that meant the tornado was forming before it appeared on film. They name this pattern the Tornado Vortex Signature (TVS). This important discovery eventually led to NOAA to deploying a nationwide network of Doppler radars.

This same year, NSSL commissions a second Doppler radar 15 miles west of Oklahoma City and names it the Cimarron radar. This gives NSSL the ability to conduct dual-Doppler experiments by simultaneously scanning the same storm with both radars.

NSSL conducts the Joint Doppler Operational Project (JDOP) to prove that Doppler radar could improve the nation's ability to warn for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. This led to the decision in 1979 by the National Weather Service (NWS), the U.S. Air Force's Air Weather Service, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to include Doppler capability in their future operational radars.

1981–1984

NSSL attempts to deploy TOTO, the TOtable Tornado Observatory in the path of an oncoming tornado. They are unsuccessful.

1985

NSSL researchers develop and test a technology that transmits radar energy pulses both horizontally and vertically on the Cimarron radar. They discover this capability provides valuable information about the type and amount of precipitation that is falling and call it dual-polarization technology.

NSSL researchers begin development of the Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) designed to enhance National Weather Service warning capabilities. WDSS contains a combination of sophisticated severe weather detection algorithms and an innovative, user-friendly display.

1991

NSSL participates in the Cooperative Oklahoma Profiler Studies of 1991 (COPS-91) and uses instrumented aircraft and a ground-based network of instruments to sample tornadic supercells.

1994

The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment (VORTEX) begins. VORTEX is a two-year project designed to answer a number of ongoing questions about the causes of tornado formation. It was a near record for the fewest number of tornadoes in the VORTEX area, but operations still occurred on 18 days and collected data on storms on 9 days.

NSSL partners with the University of Oklahoma to develop the first mobile Doppler radar.

1995

The Department of Commerce awards NSSL a Gold Medal for work leading up to and ongoing support of the national deployment of Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) radars.

VORTEX intercepts nine tornadoes; two of them were very large and violent.

The mobile Doppler radar is operational and provides revolutionary data on several tornadic storms during VORTEX.

NSSL conducts the SubVORTEX project as an extension of VORTEX with fewer vehicles and a tighter focus.

1998

NSSL coordinates the MEaPRS (MEsoscale Convective System Electrification and Polarimetric Radar Study) project using an array of fixed and mobile sensors, including a P-3 research aircraft and several mobile laboratories, to simultaneously sample a target Mesoscale Convective System.

NSSL's Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) is included in the Advanced Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS) to provide forecasters with the latest severe weather warning technology.

It is the 50th Anniversary of the first tornado forecast.

1999

NSSL and OU conduct VORTEX-99, a small follow-on project to the original VORTEX. VORTEX-99 is operating when an F5 tornado tears through parts of south Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.

NWS forecasters rely on NSSL's Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) to make timely and accurate tornado warnings during the deadly tornado outbreak in central Oklahoma on May 3, 1999.

NSSL unveils the next-generation of WDSS: WDSS-II (WDSS-Integrated Information), redesigned to allow for easier development and testing of severe weather detection and prediction applications using all operational data available in AWIPS.

2000

NSSL receives funds to build the National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) facility in Norman to develop and test phased array radar technology. Phased array radar can scan the skies in less than a minute, five times faster than current radars.

NSSL joins a coalition of researchers to design, build and deploy a mobile dual-radar system: the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching Radars (SMART-R).

NSSL conducts the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study (STEPS) field program near the Colorado-Kansas border to study thunderstorms and lightning on the high plains for eight weeks.

An NSSL scientist develops a severe weather climatology model telling us when and where severe weather is most likely to happen anywhere in the U.S.

NSSL and the NWS publicly fight the myth that highway overpasses are safe shelters in tornadoes.

A partnership begins with North Carolina groups to bring advanced flood monitoring and warning technologies to the coastal Carolinas.

The first NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) Spring Experiment to evaluate operational and experimental models and algorithms with the NWS begins and becomes an annual event.

NSSL's Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) provides weather support during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, in Sydney, Australia.

2001

NSSL participates in the Pacific Land falling Jets Experiment (PACJET) along and offshore of the U.S. Pacific coastline to improve short-term forecasts and warnings of floods, damaging winds and other severe weather.

A fire destroys the NSSL field research equipment storage facility including one of two mobile radars, a new lightning mapping array, a new mobile laboratory, a mobile mesonet instrumented vehicle, and many valuable instruments.

The Joint Polarization Experiment (J-POLE) tests the polarimetric capabilities of the WSR-88D in Norman, OK in an operational demonstration in collaboration with operational hydrologists, meteorologists and aviation users.

NSSL partners with researchers from around the world for the International H20 (IHOP) field project. The goal is to improve understanding of the process of convective initiation and boundary evolution, and learn what types of data are needed to make forecasts of thunderstorms and rainfall amounts more specific.

NSSL participates in the Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortices Experiment (BAMEX) during May–June 2003 to understand the processes and improve prediction of systems that produce severe winds.

The Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array (O-LMA) becomes operational and is used by NSSL researchers to investigate how lightning characteristics relate to updrafts, precipitation, and severe storm processes.

The Thunderstorm Electrification and Lightning Experiment (TELEX) begins the first year of a two year project to learn how lightning and other electrical storm properties are dependent on storm characteristics.

2004

NEXRAD Program Management Committee approves taking first steps towards upgrading the national operational WSR-88D network to include dual-polarimetric capabilities developed by NSSL.

It is the second year of TELEX.

NSSL seamlessly mosaics all 130 NWS and Department of Defense weather radars across the U.S. to provide the first high-resolution depiction of storms and quantitative precipitation estimation products from coast-to-coast in real-time.

NSSL deploys a mobile radar to provide data for the Flash Flood and Debris Flow project in California.

2007

NSSL introduces real-time MPAR data to forecasters in a simulated operational environment and receive positive feedback. The project is called “Phased Array Radar Innovative Sensing Experiment” (PARISE) and is ongoing.

NSSL researchers create the Meteorological Development Lab to invite collaboration and discussion on current projects being developed.

NSSL launches a new Web site to reach out to a wider audience including students, researchers, colleagues, media and the public.

The NOAA HWT identifies two interrelated areas of focus creating the Experimental Warning Program to target improving severe weather warning precision, and the Experimental Forecast Program to improve predictions of hazardous convective weather phenomena.

NSSL's prototype Four-Dimensional Stormcell Investigator (FSI) designed to “slice and dice” storms is alpha-tested in three NWSFO's and will be implemented at all WFO's.

NSSL adds a mobile X-Band dual-polarized radar (NOXP) to the armada of mobile research equipment.

NSSL operates the SMART-R in Arizona to observe the lifecycle of strong microbursts and assess their impact on the Salt River Project's electrical power transmission and infrastructure.

NSSL's SMART-R team transmits mobile radar data to the NWSFO in Oxnard, CA in real-time, aiding the office in their decision to issue a flash flood warning.

The NWS in Little Rock, Ark. uses NSSL's “On-Demand” severe storm verification system to help with damage surveys and warning verification following the Super Tuesday tornado outbreak in the south-central U.S.

2009

NSSL embraces social networking by creating a Facebook and Twitter presence.

The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2009-2010 (VORTEX2) begins. It is the largest field tornado research project in history deploying ten mobile radars and 40 other instrumented vehicles. VORTEX2 is working to better understand how, when and why some supercell thunderstorms produce tornadoes and others do not. The project was designed to observe all scales of motion from the thunderstorm down to the tornado.

VORTEX2 collects data on a tornado in LaGrange, Wyoming using all of their mobile research equipment. It remains the best-sampled storm in history.

2010

An NSSL team deploys a dual-polarized mobile radar and a team of researchers to support the 2010 Winter Olympic Games through their participation in Science and NOWcasting of Olympic Weather for Vancouver (SNOW-V10). It is a unique opportunity for international collaboration on the science of winter nowcasting in complex terrain.

NSSL/CIMMS team win the prestigious Vaisala Award for their Outstanding Research Paper, “Rapid Sampling of Severe Storms by the National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar.”

NSSL deploys a mobile radar in the Southwest Colorado Radar Project to collect data on thunderstorm rainfall to better understand and forecast flash flooding caused by the Southwest Monsoon.

The Central Oklahoma chapter of the American Red Cross uses NSSL's WDSS-II: On Demand system to assess tornado disaster areas much faster than before.

VORTEX2 continues and logs over 25,000 miles for each vehicle over the two-year project sampling 36 supercell thunderstorms and 11 tornadoes.

The Kimpel Symposium, a review of successful meteorological programs in Oklahoma including contributions made by Dr. Jeff Kimpel, and a look into the future of severe weather research, was held at the National Weather Center on Friday, June 18, 2010.

NSSL deploys a mobile radar to help with winter weather forecasts over southwest Colorado.

The first annual Warn-on-Forecast workshop was held in Norman.

NSSL's mobile radar scans the early and mature stages of the first tornado in an outbreak in central Oklahoma. A long track EF-4 tornado is captured by MPAR and tornadoes threaten the National Weather Center building.

NSSL launches the 2-Dimensional Video Disdrometer (2DVD) attached to a balloon to learn more about storm electricity and how it relates to different kinds of precipitation.

An NSSL algorithm helps alert a power company of the potential for a dust storm in Phoenix with 45 minutes advance notice.

NSSL deploys a mobile radar to collect data on dust storms in Arizona.

The Department of Commerce awards NSSL's Radar Research and Development Division a gold medal for “scientific and engineering excellence in adapting military phased array radar technology to improve U.S. weather radar capabilities.”

2012

NOAA researchers share the science of storms at the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum for two weeks as NOAA Scientists in Residence.

NSSL participates in the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry field experiment, a study of how thunderstorms impact the upper atmosphere.

The Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array expands from eleven to eighteen sites to provide mapping of lightning channel segments over most of Oklahoma.

The Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean (HyMeX) is a 10-year international effort to better understand, quantify and model the hydrologic cycle in support of improved forecasts and warnings of flash floods in the region. NSSL ships a mobile radar to France to participate. It is the largest weather field project in European history.

Mesoscale Predictability Experiment (MPEX). Researchers collected data on pre-storm and post-storm environments in an effort to better predict when and where thunderstorms will form.

Researchers collect data on tornadoes that struck within 30 miles of the laboratory and research radars.

2014

NSSL’s Multiple Radar Multiple Sensor system—a merging of NMQ and WDSS-II—went into NWS operations, providing information to NWS forecasters at unprecedentedly high spatial and temporal resolution over the continental United States and southern Canada.

NOAA scientists tackled the mystery of nighttime thunderstorms in the Plains Elevated Convection At Night (PECAN) field experiment, an intensive campaign deploying instrumented aircraft, ground-based instruments, mobile radars, and weather balloons to collect data before and during nighttime thunderstorms in the western Great Plains, to learn what triggers these storms and how they impact lives, property, agriculture and the water budget in the region.

NSSL's early Doppler research was carried out on a surplus 10-cm military radar. [+]

NSSL's early Doppler research was carried out on a surplus 10-cm military radar.

The May 24, 1973 Union City, OK tornado provided researchers their first opportunity to see the entire life cycle of a tornado. [+]

The May 24, 1973 Union City, OK tornado provided researchers their first opportunity to see the entire life cycle of a tornado.

NSSL engineers developed a color radar display for Doppler radar data. Here, NSSL scientist Don Burgess explains the color display to members of the press. [+]

NSSL engineers developed a color radar display for Doppler radar data. Here, NSSL scientist Don Burgess explains the color display to members of the press.

A display of the advantages of dual polarization radar. The top image shows a WSR-88D vertical cross-section of radar reflectivity; the bottom image shows how dual-polarization techniques can better identify and quantify precipitation types and areas. The bottom color scale progresses from light, moderate, to heavy rain through rain/hail mix, graupel/sleet, hail, dry and wet snow, and ice. [+]

A display of the advantages of dual polarization radar. The top image shows a WSR-88D vertical cross-section of radar reflectivity; the bottom image shows how dual-polarization techniques can better identify and quantify precipitation types and areas. The bottom color scale progresses from light, moderate, to heavy rain through rain/hail mix, graupel/sleet, hail, dry and wet snow, and ice.

Doppler On Wheels (DOW)—the first mobile Doppler radar, jointly developed by NSSL and the University of Oklahoma. [+]

Doppler On Wheels (DOW)—the first mobile Doppler radar, jointly developed by NSSL and the University of Oklahoma.

The 1995 Dimmitt, Texas tornado. Project VORTEX tracked this tornado and made it the most comprehensively observed tornado in history to that time. [+]

The 1995 Dimmitt, Texas tornado. Project VORTEX tracked this tornado and made it the most comprehensively observed tornado in history to that time.

NSSL has been awarded two Department of Commerce Gold Medals: one in 1995 for the work leading up to and in support of the WSR-88D Doppler radars, and one in 2011 for “scientific and engineering excellence in adapting military phased array radar technology to improve U.S. weather radar capabilities.” [+]

NSSL has been awarded two Department of Commerce Gold Medals: one in 1995 for the work leading up to and in support of the WSR-88D Doppler radars, and one in 2011 for “scientific and engineering excellence in adapting military phased array radar technology to improve U.S. weather radar capabilities.”

NWS forecasters relied on NSSL's Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) to make timely and accurate tornado warnings during the deadly tornado outbreak in central Oklahoma on May 3, 1999. [+]

NWS forecasters relied on NSSL's Warning Decision Support System (WDSS) to make timely and accurate tornado warnings during the deadly tornado outbreak in central Oklahoma on May 3, 1999.

On July 3, 2001, a fire destroyed the NSSL field research equipment storage facility, resulting in the loss of an array of equipment and vehicles. [+]

On July 3, 2001, a fire destroyed the NSSL field research equipment storage facility, resulting in the loss of an array of equipment and vehicles.

The National Mosaic & Multi-Sensor QPE (NMQ) system mosaics all 130 NWS and DoD weather radars across the U.S. to provide high resolution depiction of storms and quantitative precipitation estimation in real time. [+]

The National Mosaic & Multi-Sensor QPE (NMQ) system mosaics all 130 NWS and DoD weather radars across the U.S. to provide high resolution depiction of storms and quantitative precipitation estimation in real time.

The SMART-R radar was used for several winters in California, as part of an effort to help forecast debris flows in areas burned by wild fires. [+]

The SMART-R radar was used for several winters in California, as part of an effort to help forecast debris flows in areas burned by wild fires.